What happens when the rules and the heart conflict? In Mary Billiter’s witty novel of rule breaking and delectable romance, a red-hot suit and a beautiful computer geek are linked by heartbreaking loss and a passion certain to set fire to your pages.

From parking space to cyberspace, Waterfront Point hotel valet Carmen Gonzalez uncovers computer espionage at her own workplace. The independent, computer-whiz Carmen decides that the best way to fight the system is to hack it.

But when Hank Hughes arrives from the Oregon Coast to the Pacific Coast to take care of family business and avenge an injustice, Carmen’s “act first, think later” approach is called into question. Carmen soon realizes you can’t follow the rules and follow your heart, so one has to be broken.

Ohhhhhhh. Damn.

Bryce ran and grabbed the suitcase I’d dropped. “I’ll take care of the bags.”

I barely nodded.

Hank stepped toward me. “I was hoping to run into you today.”

I stared into the greenish-brown eyes that swirled together like his brother’s, but instead of spinning me for a loop, they bored into my heart. Hard.

“Carmen?”

I heard Hank, but I couldn’t respond. I’m falling for a giant.

He gently touched my shoulder with a massive hand. “You okay?”

“No one’s ever done that.” Suddenly I felt like a young girl. I wrapped my arms around him—or what I could of his waist. “You’re my hero.”

He tipped my chin toward him, looked longingly into my eyes, lowered his head, and softly kissed me. His lips melded into mine, his heart beat against me, and my body responded, pressing into him with a mixture of tenderness and desire that had no beginning and no end.

“Gonzalez!”

Nothing like hearing my surname bellowed across the front drive to completely kill a romantic moment. Time of death, 12:35 p.m.

I pulled away from Hank, but not before staring into his eyes. “I don’t want you to vanish again.” I finally let my heart and not my head speak. “I don’t want you to leave.”

A devil-may-care grin crossed his face. “Now, who said anything about goodbye?”

Mary Billiter is a weekly newspaper columnist and fiction author. She also has novels published under the pen name, “Pumpkin Spice.”Mary resides in the Cowboy State with her unabashedly bald husband, her four amazing children, two fantastic step-kids, and their runaway dog. She does her best writing (in her head) on her daily runs in wild, romantic, beautiful Wyoming.

Hardworking Australian nurse Ben Adams inherits a substantial sum and decides to tour Europe. In Monaco, the home of glamour and the idle rich, he meets French billionaire playboy Léo Artois. After getting off on the wrong foot—as happens when one accuses a stranger of being part of the Albanian mafia—their attraction blazes. Léo, born to the top tier of society, has never known limits, and Ben, used to budgeting every cent, finds it difficult to adjust to not only Léo’s world, but also the changes wealth brings to his own life.

As they make allowances for each other’s foibles, Ben gradually appreciates the finer things, and Léo widens his perspective. They both know one thing: this is not a typical holiday romance, and they’re not ready to say goodbye.

Louisa Masters started reading romance much earlier than her mother thought she should. While other teenagers were sneaking out of the house, Louisa was sneaking romance novels in and working out how to read them without being discovered. She’s spent most of her life feeling sorry for people who don’t read, convinced that books are the solution to every problem. As an adult, she feeds her addiction in every spare second, only occasionally tearing herself away to do things like answer the phone and pay bills. She spent years trying to build a “sensible” career, working in bookstores, recruitment, resource management, administration, and as a travel agent, before finally conceding defeat and devoting herself to the world of romance novels.

Louisa has a long list of places first discovered in books that she wants to visit, and every so often she overcomes her loathing of jet lag and takes a trip that charges her imagination. She lives in Melbourne, Australia, where she whines about the weather for most of the year while secretly admitting she’ll probably never move.

When mistaken identity leads a young botanist into trouble, Navy SEALs come to the rescue.Aled Demers prefers plants over people. He survives an attack in Anguilla alive but emotionally and physically scarred. Back home in Cardiff, he struggles with PTSD and his unraveling life.

Wyatt “Earp” Hardy lives for his SEAL brothers. Retiring from military service brings new challenges for him to face. The last thing he expects is for his next mission to involve falling for the much younger botanist.

If the botanist has the strength to heal, can Wyatt find the courage to love?

The short story The Botanist is book three in Dahlia Donovan’s international bestselling gay romance series, The Sin Bin. Each one features hot rugby players and the men who steal their hearts.

by Dahlia Donovan

As the release date to The Botanist approaches, I thought I’d share a bit about the two main characters. I fell in love with both of them and hope you do the same.

Wyatt

1. He’s a hero.

2. Hilariously funny.

3. Incredibly hot.

4. A Navy SEAL. Who doesn’t love a SEAL?

5. Genuinely cares about helping others.

Aled

1. Great hair. He’s got better hair than I do.

2. Plants. More plants. All the plants. He talks to them and treats them like his pets.

From Romantic Suspense BEST-SELLING Author: What happens when a man is called to protect the woman who captured then crushed his heart? In Sheila Kell’s story of danger and second chances, two people are connected by a painful past and a love that is threatened.

Eight years earlier, Matt Hamilton gave away his heart only to have that love snatched away. When called in to protect Caitlyn Robinson, the damaged woman from his past, he’s prepared to risk everything to make sure she’s kept safe.

By the time his team is in place, Matt discovers Caitlyn hasn’t truly recovered from the event that previously destroyed them. He’s determined to be the one to save not only her life, but her heart. Possibility drives him forward, but first, he must catch the bastard chasing her.

***

HIS HEART is the seventh book in the HIS romantic suspense series. If you like thrilling, edge of your seat reading with sizzling sex scenes, then you’ll love each installment of Sheila Kell’s best-selling series.

Praise for Sheila Kell

“Wow! Can Ms. Kell tell a great story.” – InD’tale Magazine

“One thing is for sure, Sheila Kell has solidly landed herself on my One-Click-Addiction List with this group.” – BookwormBetties

“Sheila Kell is a great author. She writes a great story with fantastic characters that draw you in and make you feel for the characters and what they are going through.” – Steamy Book Momma

Desiree Garcia always runs from her problems. But escaping memories and tragedy is impossible, no matter the distance. When her last FBI case pushes Desiree to her limits, she knows it’s time to move once more. This time, she heads back home and returns to her family and to her best friend she abandoned so long ago.

Hunter Collins was there for Desiree from the day they met at just twelve years old. He stood by her and waited for her, even when she joined the FBI, leaving him and all she loved behind. Now she’s back, he’s determined to not let her go again.

When faced with a police case that she can’t say no to, Desiree and Hunter navigate through the investigation as she faces the horrors of her past. As they struggle to solve the case, it’s up to Hunter to keep her tethered.

Will love and friendship be enough to save Desiree from herself and all that is tormenting her?

“Why are you looking at me like I’m a piece of meat?” I glared at Hunter, who had this distant, yet sexual look in his eyes. His gaze traveled over my face, down my body, and stopped at my chest. He’d been looking at me differently since I came home, like he wanted to jump my bones. It wasn’t unwelcome. What girl didn’t like being looked at like she was everything to someone? Ben looked at me like that, but I didn’t feel anything other than horny most of the time. Hunter and I had history, a past that wasn’t hidden; he knew all there was to know about me, and I knew all there was to know about him. The thought of him between my legs crept into my mind often. The way his glasses balanced on his nose when he was doing research, the scruff on his face because he hadn’t shaved in days because he was following a lead and neglected everything about himself until he had answers. The slight tan of his skin that seemed perpetual due to the California sun. My absolute favorite thing about him, though, was his smile. It always stretched across his face and showcased the little wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. Even when I was sad, or missing my sisters. Or my prior FBI colleagues turned best friends, Eden, Avery, and Madison. Hunter’s smile took some of that pain away.

“Sorry, your shirt is rather distracting.” Hunter whistled as he spun the keys to my car around in his hand. I glanced down and remembered that I’d thrown on a white T-shirt with no bra. My round, brown nipples were hard and peeking through. That’s what I got for having naughty thoughts about Hunter between my legs.

“It’s natural,” I mumbled, pulling on my shirt so it wasn’t so tight against me. Hunter grunted and shook his head.

“Let’s, um—” Hunter looked over the top of his glasses. “Head to your parents?” I didn’t like the awkwardness that had fallen over the room. I thought about lifting my shirt and giving him a full, unobstructed view of what was underneath. Again, bad idea. Sex and friendship never worked. But my God, was the sexual tension annoying as hell. Maybe just a little peek.

I stretched. Hunter’s eyes widened again as my nipples pressed against my shirt. Fuck. Now the tension was full-blown desire.

“Damn. I’m sorry. I’ll go change.” I got up and headed to my bedroom as Hunter called after me.

“Loving the view, but unless you’re going to stop being a tease, white shirt without a bra simply won’t do.” We played this game all the time. Flirted innocently. Lately though, there seemed to be more behind what we both said. I told him to shove something in my mouth to shut me up when I started talking incessantly, and secretly wanted it to be his dick. And he told me he’d service all my needs and to kick Ben to the curb. Well, there was no Ben, and my needs would need servicing, so….

“I’m changing, you horndog.” I quickly threw on a bra and a darker-colored shirt. “Let’s go before you hump my leg.” Hunter laughed as he shook his head.

You can find Genevieve curled up reading paranormal romance and romantic thrillers, or frantically typing her stories on her laptop.

Psychology is her trade by day, teaching and molding the minds of college students. Her interest in psychology can be seen in her books, each including many psychological undertones. Although she loves teaching, her passion, her true love, lies in the stories that roam around in her head. Yes, they all come from her mind-the good, the bad, and the totally insane.

She lives in Massachusetts-no, not Boston-with her husband, daughter, and American Eskimo dog. With each story, she shares, she hopes her love for writing and storytelling seeps through, encompassing the reader and leaving them wanting more.

To the outside world, Mav Ryan is living the dream. With a high profile and successful FMX career, it’s something Mav knows a million guys would kill to have. But not him. He yearns for something different, something more.

Aubrey James has had enough of bad boys to last a lifetime. When her brother, Josh, brings home the heavily tattooed definition of a bad boy, Mav, she wants nothing to do with him. It’s not until a shadow from Aubrey’s past threatens her future, that to her surprise, Mav steps in.

But can he fight her demons as well as his own? Or will Mav realise that sometimes breaking away can lead to finding your home?

It’s a cliché, but as I walk out of the ballroom the gala is being held in, I feel lighter, like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. The sounds of the party quickly fade as I leave it and my family behind. I know this is a shitty way of doing things, but I couldn’t think of another way. Besides, it’s not like I had this planned. It was only when Reed gave his toast that I realised I had no idea what I was waiting for. It’s not like my family are going to give me a permission slip to leave. I don’t even know if they know I’m not happy. Nope, this is all up to me.

I quickly drive through our moderately sized home town to the house Jax and I share. Looking out my bedroom window, I can see the house I grew up in, the lights all on. My pa and pop are in there looking after Avery and Chris. I know I should go over there and tell them what I’m doing, where I’m going, but I’m scared shitless of their reaction. It’s not that I think they’ll be pissed; it’s the disappointment I know I’ll see in their eyes that stops me. I might be the strong, silent type, but I don’t know if I’m strong enough to withstand that. With all my shit packed, I quickly scribble a note.

I’m sorry I left this way, but it was the only way I thought I could. I don’t mean to upset anyone, but I can’t live like this anymore, it’s too much. Please let me go. I’ll be okay and get in touch when I’m ready. I’m sorry. I love you all, Mav.

I’m an hour outside Booker when the calls start. First Bria, then Reed and Jax. Just as I reach the New South Wales border, a final text message comes through, this one from Park.
Park: Do what you need to, be safe, we love you.
I turn off my phone and toss it onto the passenger seat. The road stretches out in front of me, and for the first time in a long time I feel like I can breathe.

Megan Lowe is a lost journalism graduate who after many painful years searching for a job in that field, decided if she couldn’t write news stories, she would start listening to the characters whispering stories to her and decided to write them down. She writes primarily New Adult/Contemporary Romance stories with Sport and Music themes. She is based on the Gold Coast but her heart belongs to New York City. When she’s not writing she’s either curled up with a good book, travelling or screaming at the TV willing her sporting teams to pull out the win.

Hardworking Australian nurse Ben Adams inherits a substantial sum and decides to tour Europe. In Monaco, the home of glamour and the idle rich, he meets French billionaire playboy Léo Artois. After getting off on the wrong foot—as happens when one accuses a stranger of being part of the Albanian mafia—their attraction blazes. Léo, born to the top tier of society, has never known limits, and Ben, used to budgeting every cent, finds it difficult to adjust to not only Léo’s world, but also the changes wealth brings to his own life.

As they make allowances for each other’s foibles, Ben gradually appreciates the finer things, and Léo widens his perspective. They both know one thing: this is not a typical holiday romance, and they’re not ready to say goodbye.

Louisa Masters started reading romance much earlier than her mother thought she should. While other teenagers were sneaking out of the house, Louisa was sneaking romance novels in and working out how to read them without being discovered. She’s spent most of her life feeling sorry for people who don’t read, convinced that books are the solution to every problem. As an adult, she feeds her addiction in every spare second, only occasionally tearing herself away to do things like answer the phone and pay bills. She spent years trying to build a “sensible” career, working in bookstores, recruitment, resource management, administration, and as a travel agent, before finally conceding defeat and devoting herself to the world of romance novels.

Louisa has a long list of places first discovered in books that she wants to visit, and every so often she overcomes her loathing of jet lag and takes a trip that charges her imagination. She lives in Melbourne, Australia, where she whines about the weather for most of the year while secretly admitting she’ll probably never move.

Angela Waters juggles two high-stress jobs: nurse and earthbound angel. On a rare girls’ night out, she intervenes and saves the life of Mason Kearney, a stripper with southern charm and a secret. It’s a move that will force her to contemplate why in all the heavens she puts up with the injustice of being an angel, which leads to a bombshell that challenges everything she’s ever known.

In the midst of falling for the Alabama boy, she’s in for the fight of her life when a demon, hell-bent on taking her wings, shows up at the most inopportune times.

With a family of angels rallying behind her, she’s sent on a mission to learn everything about them, herself, and evil, to save all the earthbounds from an untimely demise.

Can Angela survive with her heart and her wings intact?

Angela cringed as the stripper—egged on by a twenty from her best friend, Harper—moved even closer. He was just a breath away, gyrating his hips in time with the heavy bass beat blasting from the speakers in the hazy room.

He was attractive, she’d give him that, with his washboard abs covered in stripper grease and his square jaw covered in light stubble. His shoulders were broad and his smile projected warmth. But she had no clue how to act with a cute guy grinding his heart out, his crotch—covered by a thin layer of sparkly purple fabric—almost dead even with her nose. She had been hypnotized by the guy since the moment she laid eyes on him, a pull that kept her from looking away, which was the only reason why she didn’t make Harper do an about face and walk them back out the door when they got there. When Harper suggested a “girl’s night out,” she had no idea it would culminate in ogling well-oiled men and shoving bills down their contour-hugging briefs. Even if it did include the brown-haired Adonis scantily clad in purple who was shaking what his momma gave him as he prowled around for money.

Angela gave him a tiny smile before she leaned back against the hard chair and winced. For a place that relied on customers staying for long periods of time, the seats were not comfortable.

Harper pulled a few more bills out of her wallet and winked at her. “Enjoying the scenery? I can get him back over here.” She thumbed through the wad of ones and fives with a smile.

“I can’t believe you brought me to a place like this,” Angela said, reaching for the glass in front of her, which contained the remnants of a virgin tequila sunrise… so, just a sunrise.

“I can’t believe you’ve never been to a place like this. You are straight, aren’t you?”

Angela rolled her eyes. Harper knew her preferences. In fact, Angela had been in lust with Harper’s younger brother for most of high school, finally hooking up with him during their senior year. However, he had been ripped from everyone too soon. She’d been on a few dates since then, but no one had lived up to Bryce. Angela didn’t have time for a relationship anyway, what with pulling twelve-hour shifts at work.

“Come on, it’s been three years since we lost Bryce,” Harper said, sadness clouding her eyes for a split second before returning to glee with the sights that surrounded her. “We’ve got to get you a good hook-up, get you laid. You’re still just as virgin as that drink in your hand. Speaking of the drink, we should fix that as well.”

Randi has spent her entire life writing in one form or another. In fact, if she wasn’t writing, she’d likely go completely and utterly insane. Her husband has learned to recognize when the voices are talking in her head and she needs some quality time with an empty Word file (the key to a successful marriage with a writer).

She lives with her husband, daughter, and four-legged children—all of which think they are people too.

A pop culture junkie, she has been known to have entire conversations in movie quotes and/or song lyrics.

Sky Heavensent, an angel of death, is charged with the collection of souls of the recently departed. Known to his peers and immediate supervisor, the archangel Gabriel, as the liability, Sky puts his heart and soul into everything he does.

When he meets Caleb Pierce, Sky is immediately smitten. The problem is Caleb is the soul he came to earth to harvest, and saving him means breaking one of the most sacred angelic directives.

Already in too deep, Sky pushes aside the consequences and follows his heart. Danger and mayhem follow, but he will do everything in his power to protect his lavender-eyed man.

“May I ask you what you are?”

Now that was a loaded and strange question. I looked like any other human. Maybe a little paler around my freckles, my blond hair streaked with more silver than in most people of my perceived age, but other than that I looked like a regular everyday human.

My eyebrow arched in question and I noticed his small pointing nod toward my back. Heavens! In the chaos of the fall, the loss of consciousness, and my general klutziness, I had forgotten to hide my wings. There they were, unfurled to their full glory, fluttering in the breeze like giant butterfly wings. Strike three for the clumsiest angel in Raphael’s crew.

“Well….” What exactly can I say— “I’m a freaking angel, deal with it”? “I was trying out my new wings for the upcoming Comic Con.” Lying shouldn’t come so easily for an angel.

Judging by the relief on everyone’s faces, I knew they believed me. All but Caleb, who was boring into my soul with those eyes.

“I don’t believe it,” he whispered for my ears only. I blinked and looked around, but the other men were moving away already, relaxed in the knowledge that I was just a regular geeky human.

“Well, it’s true,” I said, my lie weighing heavily on my conscience. An angel should never lie. Ever. But this was for a good cause. I couldn’t out a whole race of creatures because I couldn’t keep my flying speed under control, could I?

He pulled me aside, our backs—and now my retracted wings—to the others. “You’re an angel.” It was not a question. “I’ve seen one of your kind before.”

So I wasn’t the only clumsy angel in the realm. That was oddly comforting.

“What about you?” I asked, scanning his face for an answer. “Who has eyes like that?”

Caleb smiled. He had the sunniest smile I had ever seen. Something stirred inside of me. “Heterochromia. It runs in the family,” he said with a soft chuckle. “Just a birth defect.”

We sat down on a big rock, facing the ocean. “More like a gift,” I said before I could stop myself. Why was I trying to impress this human with my silvery tongue? I had never been too flirty or too into the dating scene among my kind or humankind; as an angel, my proverbial plate was pretty full already with all my chores and responsibilities. Of course, we did get free time that theoretically could be used for romance, but I would have to stop making so many mistakes. My free time was spent mostly fixing my mess-ups, leaving very little time for fun.

The striking young man blushed at my comment, and my angel heart fluttered. How sweet was that?

“Is it hard?” he asked, his hand shyly inching toward mine on the rock between us. “To be an angel, I mean? What do you do exactly?”

“It’s hard only when you’re the biggest klutz in the history of Heaven like I am,” I said, laughing and breaching the space between our hands. His was warm and soft underneath mine. Little electric shocks started with the contact and crawled up my arm. I had forgotten how nice this was.

Author of We Will Always Have the Closet, Desert Jewel, and Loved You Always, Natalina wrote her first romance in collaboration with her best friend at the age of 13. Since then she has ventured into other genres, but romance is first and foremost in almost everything she writes.

After earning a degree in tourism and foreign languages, she worked as a tourist guide in her native Portugal for a short time before moving to the United States. She li

ved in three continents and a few islands, and her knack for languages and linguistics led her to a master’s degree in education. She lives in Virginia where she has taught English as a Second Language to elementary school children for more years than she cares to admit.

Natalina doesn’t believe you can have too many books or too much coffee. Art and dance make her happy and she is pretty sure she could survive on lobster and bananas alone. When she is not writing or stressing over lesson plans, she shares her life with her husband and two adult sons.

Nurse Freddie Whittle devotes every fibre of his being to his work with cancer patients. Their pain weighs heavily on his shoulders. Between losing clients, the expectations of his fathers, and bigot neighbours, he’s slowly reaching his breaking point.

Taine Afoa retires from a storied career as an international rugby star. He’s moved away from London for a change of pace, never expecting to meet a man who’s far too young for him. No matter how hard he tries, it’s impossible to get Freddie out of his mind.

Will Taine’s resistance dissolve in time for him to give love the chance to flourish?

Most of my characters have favourite curse words. Freddie, from The Caretaker, he tends to swear in Welsh, which amuses me to no end. He loves the rare and often eccentric meaning behind them (and so do I.) Here are five of his personal favourites along with their translations:

Dahlia Donovan wrote her first romance series after a crazy dream about shifters and damsels in distress. She prefers irreverent humour and unconventional characters. An autistic and occasional hermit, her life wouldn’t be complete without her husband and her massive collection of books and video games.